$15 an Hour to Annual Salary

$15 an hour is $31,200 a year

$15 an hour is $31,200 a year before taxes at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. The chain is short: 15 x 40 = 600 for one week, and 600 x 52 = 31,200 for the year. The same answer comes from the hour count, since 15 x 2,080 = 31,200 and 2,080 is 40 hours across 52 weeks.

Split across pay periods the figure moves around but does not change. 31,200 / 12 = $2,600 a month, 31,200 / 26 = $1,200 per biweekly check, and the weekly gross is $600. Over 260 workdays in a year the average day is 31,200 / 260 = $120, which is what an unpaid day off costs at this rate.

The ladder shows that each dollar of hourly pay is worth 2,080 dollars a year at this schedule, so a $2 raise from $15 to $17 adds $4,160. Monthly figures are rounded because a month is not a fixed number of workdays; only the annual and weekly numbers come out exact on this schedule.

One distinction matters before any of these numbers are compared with a job offer. $31,200 is gross pay for 2,080 paid hours, which includes paid holidays and paid vacation. A schedule that pays only for hours worked produces a smaller annual figure even at the same rate, and the next sections price that difference.

Where the 2,080 hours come from, and the 2,087 federal variant

The 2,080 hour year is a convention built from 40 hours a week across 52 weeks, and it is the number most salary offers use because it is easy to check by hand. A calendar year is not exactly 52 weeks: 365 days is 52 weeks plus one day, so the real average is 2,087 hours once leap years are folded in.

The federal government uses that longer figure. The OPM fact sheet on the 2,087 hour divisor explains where it comes from: a 1981 GAO study averaged a 28 year calendar cycle, with 4 years of 262 workdays, 17 years of 261 workdays and 7 years of 260 workdays, which gives (2,096 x 4 + 2,088 x 17 + 2,080 x 7) / 28 = 2,087.14 hours. Federal hourly rates are computed by dividing the annual rate by 2,087 under 5 U.S.C. 5504(b).

At $15 an hour the difference is small but real: 15 x 2,087 = $31,305, which is $105 more than the 2,080 answer. Neither figure is wrong. The 2,080 version answers "what does a 40 hour week pay across 52 weeks", and the 2,087 version answers "what is the average hourly value of a calendar year of work".

For a job offer, use the divisor the employer uses. An offer that quotes $31,200 for 40 hours is using 2,080, and dividing it by 2,087 to check the hourly rate returns $14.95 rather than $15.00, a rounding artifact of the divisor rather than a pay cut.

Fewer than 52 weeks: unpaid leave and seasonal work

Most people do not work all 52 weeks at full pay. Unpaid leave, a gap between jobs, a seasonal shutdown or an unpaid internship week all shorten the year, and each missing week removes $600 at $15 an hour.

The 50 week row is the common case for a new hire with two weeks of unpaid leave, and it lands on $30,000 rather than $31,200. Paid vacation behaves differently: the paycheck stays whole, so a job with 10 paid vacation days still produces $31,200 for the year while the hours worked fall to 2,000.

Seasonal work compresses the same arithmetic into fewer weeks. Twenty six weeks at 40 hours is 1,040 hours, which pays $15,600 at this rate, and a worker who picks up a second seasonal stint of 13 weeks adds 520 hours and $7,800. Annualizing a short season by multiplying a good week by 52 is the mistake that makes seasonal pay look better than it is.

Part time at 20, 25, 30 and 35 hours

Part time changes one factor and leaves the rate alone. Twenty hours a week is half of a full schedule, so the annual figure halves: 15 x 20 x 52 = $15,600. Thirty hours is three quarters of full time and lands at 15 x 30 x 52 = $23,400, which is $7,800 below the 40 hour year.

The share column is the number to quote in a negotiation, because benefits and eligibility thresholds usually key off full time status rather than annual pay. A 30 hour schedule at $15 earns 75 percent of the full time salary but may still qualify for health coverage under the employer plan, depending on how that plan defines full time.

Part time also changes the cost side. Commuting, childcare and meals are often priced per day rather than per hour, so a 25 hour week can carry nearly the same daily overhead as a 40 hour week and leave less net per hour worked. That is why two part time jobs at 20 hours each rarely match one 40 hour job at the same rate once travel between sites is counted.

Overtime at time and a half

Overtime is where the annual figure stops being a simple multiplication. The FLSA requires covered employers to pay at least one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, as the DOL Fact Sheet #23 states, and the test applies week by week rather than to the year.

At $15 an hour the overtime rate is 15 x 1.5 = $22.50. Five extra hours in a week add 5 x 22.50 = $112.50 to the $600 base, for a weekly gross of $712.50, and 712.50 x 52 = $37,050 across a year of steady overtime. Ten extra hours a week produce 600 + 225 = 825 weekly, which annualizes to 825 x 52 = $42,900.

Steady overtime is not the same as occasional overtime, even when the yearly hours match. Because the FLSA counts hours over 40 in each workweek, a 50 hour week followed by a 30 hour week pays 10 overtime hours and no overtime respectively, while the pair averages 40. Averages hide the premium, so a schedule built on alternating long and short weeks pays less than the same hours spread evenly.

Some employers offer compensatory time instead of cash, and some salaried roles are exempt from overtime entirely. Both arrangements change the annual number, so the $31,200 base is the figure to compare before either adjustment is applied.

How $15 compares with the federal minimum wage

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, and the DOL minimum wage page still lists that rate; the agency's consolidated table was last revised on July 1, 2026. At a full 2,080 hour year the floor pays 7.25 x 2,080 = $15,080, so $15 an hour sits 31,200 - 15,080 = $16,120 above it, or 31,200 / 15,080 = 2.07 times the federal floor.

State law can raise the floor, and the DOL consolidated minimum wage table tracks which states sit above $7.25, which ones match it and which have no state minimum at all. Where both laws apply, the higher standard governs. That is why the same $15 rate can be roughly double the floor in one state and close to the local minimum in another.

A second benchmark comes from earnings data rather than law. The BLS report on usual weekly earnings put median weekly earnings for full time wage and salary workers at $1,232 in the third quarter of 2026, which is 1,232 / 40 = $30.80 an hour at a 40 hour week and 1,232 x 52 = $64,064 across a year. A $15 wage earns 600 / 1,232 = 48.7 percent of that median week.

Both comparisons are about gross pay. They say nothing about hours flexibility, benefits or location, and a $15 job with paid health coverage can beat a $17 job without it. Use the comparisons to place the rate, not to settle the decision.

What the $31,200 leaves out: taxes, benefits and unpaid time

Every figure above is gross pay, the number before any deduction. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare withholding, and state or local tax all come out of $31,200 before it reaches a bank account, and the exact total depends on filing status, dependents, state of residence and the withholding elections on a W-4. No single take-home number applies to everyone at this rate, so a page that quotes one is guessing.

Benefits sit on the same ledger. An employer share of a health premium, a retirement match and paid leave all have value that never appears in the hourly rate, while a contractor at $15 has to fund those items from the same $31,200. Comparing a $15 employee role with a $17 contract role without pricing benefits usually favors the wrong side.

Unpaid time is the third adjustment. A 40 hour schedule with a 30 minute unpaid lunch is 37.5 paid hours a week, which at $15 is 37.5 x 15 = $562.50 weekly and 562.50 x 52 = $29,250 a year, not $31,200. Commuting costs and tools of the trade come out of the same paycheck, and they are fixed per day rather than per hour.

The last item is the raise path. Because each dollar of hourly pay is worth 2,080 dollars a year on a full schedule, a $1 raise is a $2,080 annual increase before tax, and a $3 raise is $6,240. Framing a raise in annual terms makes it comparable with a salaried offer, which is the number most negotiations turn on.